Psychology Today | 24.12.2025 22:09
For many people, going home for the holidays brings warmth, nostalgia, and a sense of belonging. For others, it brings a tightening in the chest, a quiet dread, or an old heaviness they thought they’d outgrown. The moment you walk in, you feel it. No one has said a word, nothing “bad” has happened, and yet your stomach drops in the same way it did when you were 15. The house feels familiar in a way you didn’t consent to. The air remembers something about you.
